My Gang of Swordsmen

Chapter 351 - 138: Aoto vs. Kondo Shuuzo! Teaching the Secret Arts of the Natural Reasoning Heart Stream!

Such a grand gathering of experts... The opportunity to replicate talent must be extraordinary!

Just the thought of it makes Aoto feel excited.

Of course, Kondo Shuuzo isn’t aware of the little schemes in Aoto’s mind.

He purely believes that Aoto is excited because he gets to compete with masters.

"Hahaha." Zhouzhu laughed heartily a few times, "Not bad! A martial artist must have the courage and joy to compete with various experts!"

"Mr. Tachibana, I was a bit worried you might feel nervous since it’s your first time participating in a swordsmanship competition like this."

"Now it seems I’ve overthought it."

"In the past, I also loved sparring with those formidable masters."

"After every exhilarating battle with them, I gained many insights."

"In my most crazy days, I challenged 9 famous swordsmen in just half a month."

"Although I only won 4 of those 9 challenges, regardless of winning or losing, these battles transformed into precious ’nutrients’ for me."

...

Sigh, here we go again... Aoto couldn’t help but sigh helplessly in his heart.

Aoto increasingly understands why Master Abi often shouts at Zhouzhu: Can’t you stop being so annoying?

Fortunately, Zhouzhu wasn’t verbose for too long this time.

After murmuring for about half a minute, Zhouzhu put his hands behind his back and walked slowly towards the wooden bucket storing bamboo swords not far away.

"Alright, no more chatting, I should also start digesting and exercising."

"Mr. Tachibana, you continue practicing."

"Since I’m here tonight, if you encounter any swordsmanship training problems, feel free to come to me for advice at any time, hohoho."

After slowly approaching the wooden bucket holding bamboo swords, Zhouzhu casually picked out a bamboo sword, then walked to the corner of the dojo not far from Aoto, spreading his legs and holding the sword in a middle stance, starting the most basic swordsmanship training action: Cut Return.

The so-called "Cut Return" is to first swing the knife from the front and then from the left and right sides, repeating in a cycle.

Although Zhouzhu’s swinging actions are very standard, his speed is extremely slow—it seems he really just wants to casually swing the sword and digest.

Keep practicing... Aoto, while smiling bitterly, reaches out his hand to rub his ear, which was slightly numb from Zhouzhu’s earlier nonsense, then repositions the bamboo sword in front of him.

Taking a deep breath, he continues practicing the most fundamental and also the most important swordsmanship move: Suburi.

Since being accepted into Shiwei Hall and formally studying the Natural Reasoning Heart Stream, Suburi has become one of the swordsmanship exercises Aoto does daily.

After months of relentless training, Aoto can now easily perform over a hundred standard Suburi, and the sound of the sword cutting through the wind is incomparable to when he first started learning swordsmanship.

Aoto meticulously and robotically repeats the actions of raising the sword and striking, over and over.

His body, which had just cooled down, starts to sweat again.

Suddenly—just as Aoto aggressively swings forward with the bamboo sword raised high, his action abruptly stops.

"Hmm..." Aoto murmured a low moan, then lowered his head, staring intently at the bamboo sword in his hand, lost in thought.

At this moment, Zhouzhu’s aged voice unexpectedly reaches Aoto’s ear again.

"Hmm? Mr. Tachibana, what’s the matter? Why do you look so serious staring at your sword?"

Zhouzhu paused his Cut Return practice, stood up straight, and gazed at Aoto with curiosity.

"Did the bamboo sword break?"

Aoto gently shook his head, "No, my bamboo sword isn’t broken."

"Then..." Zhouzhu laughed a few times "hohoho" and then raised his hand to rub his clean-shaven chin, "Are you encountering some difficulties in swordsmanship training?"

"..." Aoto pursed his lips, and after pondering for a moment, he raised his gaze to meet Zhouzhu’s, and said earnestly, "Master, I feel... my training seems to have hit a bottleneck."

"Oh?" Zhouzhu raised an eyebrow, "A bottleneck...? Do you feel your improvement speed has slowed down recently?"

Aoto nodded, "It probably started a few days ago, I found that no matter how I practice, I don’t feel like my skills are making obvious progress, always stuck in place."

Aoto elaborated on his current training situation to Zhouzhu.

Zhouzhu also listened attentively, nodding lightly from time to time.

Once Aoto finished speaking, Zhouzhu smiled while raising his hand to touch his clean-shaven chin again.

"Hohoho, Mr. Tachibana, from your description... you indeed have entered a bottleneck period."

"No need to feel anxious or worried! Encountering a bottleneck is a very normal phenomenon."

"Whether it’s academic research or martial arts training, such phenomena occur: Progress is rapid at the beginning, but as the level gradually improves, one starts to encounter one bottleneck after another, progress speed continues to slow down."

"So keep a calm mind and continue to train step by step."

"Bottleneck period..." Aoto chuckled a few times, then muttered in a half-joking tone, "Haha... I wonder when I will be able to break through this bottleneck I’m facing now."

"Mr. Tachibana, don’t be greedy, don’t rush." Zhouzhu switched to a more serious expression and tone, "In martial arts training, the most taboo is impatience."

Aoto’s earlier words were merely joking, seeing Zhouzhu appearing ready for a long lecture, Aoto, fearing Zhouzhu might start rambling again, immediately stood straight, respectfully indicating to Zhouzhu "Yes, the student has been taught."